succulent love
i have to admit, i've developed a bit of an obsession....i love succulents and cacti. in a very short time, beginning this springs, i have developed quite a collection already. i love their shapes and textures and colors. and, they are pretty darned easy to take care of. it's also a lot of fun to find fun containers to put them in since you don't necessarily have to use your standard pot.
i have a collection indoors, along our kitchen/dining room window sill. as well as a nice grouping outside. i will have to winter them indoors so...i had better stop collecting those or else our house will be overrun by the time the freezes begin!
we've also really worked hard on our cinder block wall this year. we built it last year, based on a simple idea i found on pinterest. well, that idea grew into an entire wall and took an awful lot of work. however, it's my favorite part of our yard now.
a lot of people have asked how we built this wall. it was a long process and a lot of work and i will try my best to describe how we did it. first, we dug a trench about the depth of the height of one cinder block, and laid the first row. to get the blocks to stick together, luc used a heavy duty waterproof apoxy glue. we continued layering the blocks in an offset or running brick pattern. along the way, we cantilevered a few of the blocks in order to have "hanging" plant areas. once we got to the top, we used regular cinder blocks where we wanted plant openings and used solid cinder blocks in the other spaces. we poured concrete into the holes (otherwise you would have holes that went all the way to the ground. we primed the blocks and painted them with two coats of outdoor paint. the biggest challenge was the overhanging blocks. we needed a way to put a bottom on the openings in order to place plants in them. after much trial and error, luc came up with the idea of using plastic glad containers, cutting them in half and sliding them together to fit inside the holes. the negative to this is that no plants will survive the winter in those so, they must be replanted each year. and, i don't love that you can see the plastic lip so i use plants that hang over and trail, which helps cover it up.
i'm not certain how well that explanation makes sense but hopefully, between that and the photos you can see how it came together!
this little beauty is actually a plumeria tree. i got her because the plumeria flower was used in the lei i had around my neck for our wedding ceremony in maui, hawaii. their smell is intoxicating. she will definitely be brought inside for the winter.
not a succulent or cacti, obviously, but a fun idea on how to repurpose a container. this used to be my beloved bicycle basket, until my bike fell over and this was crushed. after a little hot clue and some pretty florals, it fits right in with our garden!
another unique, easy container idea. soup or vegetable cans (or bulk hominy cans for the big guy there).
